Avondale Park & Zion Prairie Field Trip

September 14, 2015, 7:00 am–12:00 pm

Avondale Park is one of the locations hosting a Birmingham Audubon Urban Bird Habitat Initiative, which is the planting of native flowers in the revived formal rose gardens to attractive wildlife to the area. The 40-acre park is also rich in local history as it was the site of Birmingham’s first zoo and its famous elephant, Miss Fancy.
Our visit will start out by the rose garden and follow up a hill to the pavilion known as the Villa. Open fields, brushy grasses and tree-lined paths will provide varied birding habitat along the way. We hope to see some late fall migrants and common woodland species such as nuthatches, woodpeckers and hawks.
After birding this area, we will caravan to a site near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport known as Zion Prairie. This former neighborhood was condemned and razed in an airport expansion project. This has left behind a lovely prairie-type habitat which has attracted many bird species that prefer open grasslands to the area. We hope to encounter various sparrow species, meadowlarks and other species that enjoy this type of habitat.
Please meet by the rose garden at Avondale Park near 40th Street South at 7 a.m. You may contact the trip leaders regarding any questions that you have about this event.
Trip Leaders: Maureen Shaffer 205-822-8728 (home) 205-222-2662 (cell) or Susan Barrow 205-942-8667